11 Bloody Mary Riffs to Spice Up Your Weekend

When you’re out to brunch with your friends this weekend (it’s inevitable), you’ll likely find yourself ordering the hungover soul’s best friend: a Bloody Mary. But, if you’re feeling particularly near death, know that you don’t have to venture into the daylight to get that spicy, savory cocktail you want and need. There are tons of flavorful variations of the classic drink that you can make for yourself at home to give that Bloody Mary brunch special a run for its money.

So get yourself going this weekend with some spiced up, creative Bloody Mary renditions. With ingredients like bacon, curry paste, basil, and beef bouillon, you’ll start thinking of a Bloody Mary as less of a hair-of-a-dog cure and more of a delectable reward for getting out of bed (or just being alive in general).

Click through the gallery for the best elevated Bloody Mary recipes that will hit the spot anytime of day.

Mezcal Mary

Recipe:The Poor Porker
This recipe takes mezcal—an agave-based Mexican spirit—and marries it with cilantro, pico de gallo, and habanero peppers for an epic Bloody Mary upgrade. What's more, you can garnish this cocktail with pork belly if you have leftovers from last night's dinner, because pork makes everything better—even your hangover.

Caesar Cocktail

Recipe:Cookin’ Canuck
The Caesar Cocktail—a.k.a., the “Canadian Bloody Mary”—departs from the traditional Mary by using Clamato juice, a mixture of tomato juice and clam broth. If that sounds a little freaky, don’t worry—you won’t taste the clams under the vodka, Worcestershire, and Tabasco sauce, and the Clamato isn’t as thick as plain tomato juice, so your cocktail will go down smooth.

Rasam Mary

Recipe:Giggle Water
The Rasam Mary perks up the traditional version of the cocktail with the Indian flavors of tomato rasam, a broth made with coriander, cumin, and curry. With the spice-factor of the rasam, all you need is vodka and ice and you’re good to go.

East Indies Bloody Mary

Recipe:Liquidity Preference
This Bloody Mary twist is infused with a potent Indonesian spice paste made from fish sauce, nutmeg, cumin, and turmeric. Garnish with cumin, salt, and a pickle, and you’ve got a cocktail that will give your hungover brunch just the kick it needs.

Tomatillo Bloody Mary

Recipe:Saveur
Go green with this Mary variation, made from a blend of tomatillos, cucumber, cilantro, and lime. The freshness of the herbs and cucumber coupled with the kick of vodka and serrano chile will have you feeling less corpse-like with every sip.

Ghost of Mary

Recipe:Philly.com
This cocktail gets its name from its use of clarified tomato juice that’s not as pulpy as regular tomato juice—it gives the drink a light color, like the ghost of tomato juice past. Add the spicy punch of red onion, hot pepper, and lime to the juice, and you’ll be requesting this drink even when you’re sober.

Bloody Beer

Recipe:Bon Appetit
What we’ve got here is an ideal two-for-one hangover cocktail recipe: a mix of a Bloody Mary and a Michelada. Take the lager of the Michelada and mix with the tomato juice of the Bloody Mary, and it’s like you're drowning that hangover twice as fast.

Maple Bacon Bloody Mary

Recipe:The Hungry Goddess
No, this recipe isn’t just a run-of-the-mill Bloody Mary with some bacon stuck on top. It uses Maple Bacon Vodka to compliment the spicy ingredients of the Bloody Mary and make for a well-balanced cocktail, which is, of course, improved all the more by a bacon garnish.

Basil Bloody Mary

Recipe:A Beautiful Mess
This recipe takes a tried-and-true combination you already love—tomato, basil, and cheese—and pairs the trio with the hangover cocktail you need. Why didn’t we think of this sooner?

Shandong Mary

Recipe:Cool by Intent
The Shandong Mary sticks to the traditional tomato juice/vodka foundation you’re looking for but gives it an extra shock of Asian flavor with chili garlic sauce and Tsingtao beer.

Bloody Bull

Recipe:Ben Benson’s Steakhouse via The New York Times.
This cocktail is a marriage of the Bloody Mary and the Bull Shot. It brings beef bouillon into the mix to make the cocktail intensely savory. Dale DeGroff, one of the founders of the Museum of the American Cocktail, agrees with Ben Benson's choice of Campbell's Beef Broth.

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